Our resident pop culture expert Pat Reeder watched the Oscars so you wouldn’t have to (and judging by the ratings, he was one of the few), and wrote a review yesterday. But he didn’t mention one of the few moments worth seeing, and that was Tyler Perry’s speech upon receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for all he did to help people during the pandemic.

For all the lecturing and political posturing that’s driving away awards show audiences, Perry’s speech was exactly the message that so many people have been longing to hear. His message: “Don’t hate anybody.”

Perry said he refuses to hate anyone because they’re black, white, Asian, Mexican, LGBTQ, and “I refuse to hate someone because they are a police officer.” That line is already generating – guess what? – a lot of hate on Twitter.

Perry went on: “I want to take this Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and dedicate it to anyone who wants to stand in the middle, no matter what’s around the wall, stand in the middle, ’cause that’s where healing happens. That’s where conversation happens. That’s where change happens. It happens in the middle. So anyone who wants to meet me in the middle, to refuse hate, to refuse blanket judgment, and to help lift someone’s feet off the ground, this one is for you, too. God bless you, and thank you, Academy.”

It’s probably no coincidence that Perry’s positive, faith-affirming films are big hits with audiences while being savaged by liberal critics, and his studio is based in Atlanta, not Hollywood. Maybe if some of the self-congratulatory leftists in the room followed his example, viewers might have tuned in to the Oscars. They might even have actually seen some of the nominees.